


In The Name of the Angel

by Better_Than_Chocolate



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Alternative Universe - FBI, Angst, BAMF Alec Lightwood, BAMF Magnus Bane, Blood and Violence, Crime Scenes, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Horror, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, Investigations, M/M, Prostitution, Slow Burn, Torture, Trust Issues, cop! Alec, criminal! Magnus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-28 00:55:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20957780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Better_Than_Chocolate/pseuds/Better_Than_Chocolate
Summary: Prostitues are being murdered in New York.Alec and Jace discover a connection between the women. Raphael Santiago. The man responsible for the safety of half of New York's prositutes.While Alec is chasing a killer who muders with hatred and no guilt, he finds himself tangled in a world a bit too dark and too dangerous.Even though he trusts nothing and no one, he will find himself being forced to work with a criminal to stop a cold blooded murderer.That's until Alec suddenly finds himself being the killer's next target, while his walls are coming crushing down.Can he trust his allies?Can he stop the killer before he becomes his next victim?





	In The Name of the Angel

**Author's Note:**

> Lol.  
I don't even know what I'm doing at this point. I have more stories in progress than fingers. It is bad.  
But oh well. This story is pretty much finished in my head. haha.  
That doesn't mean it is finished nor that it will be updated weekly. But to be fair, with me, one can never know.  
This story will be ugly. There is mention and description of torture and murder.  
And things will eventually get even uglier.  
It is dark and sometimes disturbing. 
> 
> xx

There is a certain childish fear about the darkness. All your long-forgotten fears about shadows, and the monsters luring in them, resurfaces. You look at it almost as a long-lost enemy, like and old acquaintance, someone you used to know but haven’t talked in ages, haven’t met in a while.

Its presence is not welcomed. On the contrary. It sets every hair straight on your body, it sends shivers down your spine, it makes your heart beat faster, your breathing to be ragged. It clutches onto you like a stubborn child, its fingers curl around your heart, squeezing it, abusing your nerves with each moment you have to endure in its company. 

But its all in your head. You tell yourself. There is no reason to be afraid in the dark. There is no one waiting for you on the next corner. There is no one out here with the sole purpose to hurt you. 

_It’s irrational. _

Yet, you try to focus on your surroundings through the white panic. Your eyes scan every square meter of the street. Watching for any movement behind a bin, next to a lamp post, over on the other side. 

You are ready to spot something, anything, that doesn’t belong there. Something that stands out as a sore thumb, even its mere presence screaming how wrong it is. 

The appearance of a car is both wished and dreaded. But you decide that cars mean witnesses, people who can help if your fears become reality. 

An alleyway. 

Every single advice your mum ever told you about crossing an alleyway at night rushes through your head. Don’t. Under no circumstances. No matter what. Never. 

But there is no reason to be afraid. You tell yourself again. It’s familiar. You crossed it numerous times before, even at night. It’s always the same. And at the end of it.. there is safety. The safety of home. 

You swallow as you stop at the opening of it, your eyes staring into the darkness. It’s isolated. There are no cars in there. There is no one in there. 

It’s silly. _Irrational._

You almost laugh but swallow it before it could bubble to the surface. Get a grip.  
And in you go.  


But after a few meters, when the reassuring lightness of the street doesn’t engulf you into its safety anymore, your fears suddenly come back, stronger than before. 

Again, you feel like a prey. Your eyes jump from side to side, as if there would be a monster in every shadow, ready to jump at you, grab you, rip you apart. 

Breath. You tell yourself, but your body betrays you. Fear tightens your chest with each step you take, making it harder to breath in the cold air. 

Sirens go off in the distance, is it an ambulance? Police? Maybe there is a fire somewhere?  
It’s New York, it could be any or even all at the same time.  
You keep walking, you are almost half-way through.  
There is a lamp post, it flickers, its orange light shines from behind, making your shadow look lean and long. Almost in a ridiculous way.  
You watch it, almost mesmerized. It’s familiar. It’s _you_.  
There is no-one else in here, just you.  
There is nothing to be afraid of.  


The noise from the street hardly reaches you. The usual liveliness of the city is suddenly quieter, almost as if someone turned the volume down. It’s in the background but you almost need to focus to hear the cars driving by. 

All you can hear is your footsteps. The thud sounds it makes as it meets the wet asphalt with each step. 

_Click clack click clack…_

Her heels hit the ground rhythmically as she made her way through the narrow footpath and its brick built walls. 

She breathed in almost relived once she got through half-way. She was almost home. 

It was late, or early. Around 4am. Maybe even half past. 

_Click clack click clack …_

She will grab a bite once home, maybe watch some TV. 

_Click clack click clack…_

Then get a hot bath, maybe drink a glass of wine, lit some candles. 

_Click clack cli_-** thud.**

All thoughts were vanished from her head as she registered the noise from behind.  
Footsteps.  
Not hers. Not familiar ones. But strange. Belonging to someone else.  
She started to walk faster.  


Don’t turn around. Don’t look back. Her mind screamed as she tried to make her way through, desperately hoping that whoever followed her, had no business with her. That they were just crossing the same way she was. 

Her hand moved to her coat, pulling it in, trying to find some comfort in the softness of the fur. 

_Clickclackcli-_**thud, thud, thud…**

She tried to swallow through the sheer panic. Whoever was following her, also quickened their space. 

She didn’t have to turn around to know, that the distance between them was decreasing. Quickly. 

She wasn’t far from the end of the alley. She could already see it. The lights. The street. The safety. 

Just little bit more. Just a little bit- 

_______ 

Alec stepped under the police tape along with Jace as they approached the body. 

He spotted Raj kneeling next to the victim, his face looked troubled even when he looked up at nodded politely towards them. 

“What do we have?” Jace asked and he quickly looked around in the narrow alley. Rubbish was littered lightly, mostly food boxes, cigarette butts and a few empty bottles of cheap alcohol. It looked like any other alleyway in New York. Apart from the dead body, that was lying not far from the point where it opened into the street. Her body was covered, and Alec had a rather alarming feeling as of why. 

“Heidi McKenzie. 17-year-old. She ran away from home roughly a year ago. Her mother reported her disappearance, but she was never found. Until now. She had her handbag with her. We found her ID.” Raj said as he stood up and handed said documents over to Alec. 

“Cause of death?” Alec asked with a frown as he took the document and glanced down at the photo. 

“There is a head to the trauma. There are marks around her neck, she was definitely strangled. But that’s not all…” Raj said with a sigh as he moved the cover, revealing the girl’s body. 

Eyes open. Alec always found it disturbing when the victim’s eyes were open. He felt like they were watching him, it was stupid, but he was never able to look into their eyes. 

Blood. There were loads of blood covering her mouth and chin. It was in her hair, sticking together in dark clumps around her neck and shoulder. 

“Did she bite her tongue?” Jace asked as he crunched down and leaned forward. Alec closed his eyes, because he knew the answer. 

“No. Her tongue has been cut out.” Raj said as he opened her mouth to show the lack of said part. 

“I believed you, there was no point showing it.” Jace said with a grimace. 

“Where is it?” Alec asked, arms folded in front of his chest. 

“We didn’t find it. It’s not in the esophagus. It could be in the stomach, but we won’t know it till later. But there is a good chance the killer took it.” 

“What makes you think that?” Alec asked with a frown. 

“He left a little message. Although I don’t think it was meant for us. But still.” Raj said as he lowered the cover, revealing almost her entire body. 

Across her body with red bloody letters, stood the word: **LIAR**

_______ 

“I don’t understand. Why would someone go this far to kill a girl? Why couldn’t they just hit her hard enough in the head? I mean.. all the strangling, the mutilation. “ Jace said as they sat in the office. 

Alec was staring at his cup in the last forty minutes, the picture of the girl stuck in his head, flashing on repeat like thunder in a storm. 

“Once Izzy is done with the biopsy, we will know more.” Alec said as he tore his gaze from the cup and looked at his partner. 

“She was only a girl. Damn a child.” Jace said, still affected by the entire case just as much as Alec was. 

“Whoever did this, had strong hatred towards her. This wasn’t just a mugging turned into murder. Did someone inform her mother?” 

“Yes. She should be down in half an hour. Underhill will talk to her. See if she knows anything.” 

“I-“ Alec started but then the door of the office burst open and Underhill marched in, files in his hand. He looked troubled enough to get both Alec and Jace jumping out of their chairs on an instant. 

“Guys. You have to see this.” Underhill said almost breathless. 

“What is it?” Alec asked as he watched the man fiddle with a few papers, before he laid three other photographs down onto the desk. 

“This – he said as he tapped his finger on the first photograph. – Is Kaelie Whitewhillow. She was found dead three weeks ago in Manhattan. This – he moved onto the next woman – is Eloise Sanders. Her body was found over a month ago, in Hell’s kitchen. And our third victim is unknown. Was found over half a year ago at the docks in Chinatown. They were all killed the same way as our latest victim.” 

“How come we never heard anything before?” Jace asked as he looked at the first photograph, his face was expressing something that Alec couldn’t pinpoint exactly. 

“They were all killed in different parts of New York. The police didn’t find any connections between the cases. And to be honest I doubt they were looking that much into it.” Underhill said as he shook his head, Alec wasn’t sure if it was in anger or just disappointment. 

“Why would you say that?” Alec asked as he looked at Underhill, but the answer came from Jace. 

“Because they were prostitutes. Kaelie was.. at least years ago. I met her once. I didn’t know what she was doing. We met in a bar. I haven’t heard from her in over three years.” His voice was quiet, sad. 

“All women, possibly from the same circles, killed in the same way… we have a serial killer.” Alec said coldly, stating the obvious as he placed Heidi’s photo on the end of the table. 

“Do you know who was running her?” Underhill asked Jace as he picked up the pictures. 

“A guy called Raphael Santiago.”


End file.
